Event Styling, Crafts, DIY, Design, and anything that is beautiful in this world

Surya’s Palm Springs Party!

The guilt has been piling up on me these past few days as I’ve been neglecting my blog. Although this diary of mine does not earn money (in fact, I lose money on this as I have to pay hosting fees to keep the lights on!), I am compensated thru non-financial means: because of michellelao.com, I get to do my 2nd favorite thing: writing.

One of the reasons why I haven’t been able to sit down in front of my laptop lately is because it was, until about a week ago, the month of January. And for those of you who are unaware, January is that special month where everyone suddenly becomes proactive, health-conscious, and most importantly organized. In other words, all the mommies are in intense planning mode!

Here’s a sample planning session we just had with my number 1 favorite pre-school, ICBB:

You have to be an ICBB parent in order to understand the extreme lengths that ICBB teachers go thru to put up the massive production that is called the Moving Up Day (pre-school’s equivalent of a “graduation”). I can say with 100% confidence that there is literally NO OTHER pre-school that pulls off a show like this one! Just check out A Hairspray Musical by ICBB Kids!

But with all these planning and meetings, I also get to see a glimpse of the upcoming themes we will be executing this new year, and I’m telling you, I’m getting excited just thinking about the line-up that we have.

So let’s start 2018 with a blast with another unique theme that Party Magic executed:

This particular one on top, especially, blew me away. It really takes a great eye to capture amazing images.

When I met Sanaiyah, my client, she came to me with no theme and just a venue: The Palace Pool Club in BGC. A good theme should work and blend well with the venue, so it should be something that is outdoor-sy and bright.

This is when I got the idea to make a Palm Springs theme.

If you think about it, Palm Springs is the perfect theme for Palace Pool Club: it’s naturally “outdoors”, gender-neutral so can easily be tweaked for the specific celebrant, and is well suited to a pool party (which Sanaiyah wanted)!

I deliberately designed the font of “Palm Springs” onstage to hearken back to that “retro” era of mid-century modern design.

When I think about Palm Springs, I think about California, the desert, resorts, beaches, Hollywood, and mid-century modern design. Having all of these subliminal associations with a theme really mesh out the event’s “personality”.

If you think these images are great, wait until you see the SDE, made by the very talented Bella Morcen:

Three thumbs up Bella, you truly captured the feel of the event!

For ceiling work, I wanted the venue to feel festive (this is a kid’s party, after all) and yet still be in theme, so I chose to use orange and teal lanterns and buntings, accented with tropical leaves:

Everything turned out fantastic in the party. For example, I love this graffiti artwork on the walls of the Palace Pool Club, which really worked well with the Palm Springs theme. When I say a theme should work and blend well with the venue, I really meant it!

The main challenge with this venue is the layout. This is because there is a huge, open-air distance between the stage, where the program will be executed, and the roofed area, where the food will be displayed and served. In this open air distance in the middle sits the swimming pool:

As a welcome greeting, I placed this near the entrance, right before the guests arrive at the roofed area:

Guests can then take photos at this wonderful photo-op:

Like I always say, it’s all about the details. I wanted the photo-op to look “filled up”, so I bombarded the backdrop with tropical leaves and bordered it with an organic arch crawling along the top. White peacock chairs paired with wired metal chairs offer welcome seating, while a stylized neon Surya signage hangs in the middle of the frame.

The organic balloon arch. The stylish way to do balloons!

A stylized signage of the celebrant’s name is a great, non-tacky way to put your child’s “signature” on every photo that your guests take.

Oh, and let’s not forget the macrame!

Here’s how the photo-op would look with humans in it:

That’s mommy Sanaiyah, Surya’s mom!

For the dessert table, I wanted something fresh and different. So I bought these plastic yellow containers (the kind that you use for delivery of food items), and stacked them on top of each other to create a summery backdrop:

DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS

While the big props and backdrop drive a strong first impression, it’s the little details that make a party extra special.

As part of the dessert table background, we had two grass panels to the left and right, adorned with various fans, leaves, and flora:

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Welcome To My World!

I'm Michelle, mother of the 2 sweetest girls in the world, Sofia and Chloe. I'm an event stylist and owner of the boutique styling shop, Party Magic. I love doing crafts, design, cooking, and anything that has anything to do with beauty and art.